Advertising for the Wedding Photographer Part 1 – Wedding Magazines

Lets talk ADVERTISING.

I’ve wanted to write this post for a while. But I wanted to make sure I’d exhausted all possible avenues before releasing it because what I’ve learned about the figures used to sell it, how it is sold, the perceptions people have about it, the mistakes people have made as well as the successes are worthy of not just a single blog post but several.

This is a chronicle of my (mis)adventures in advertising, It should save you money and if you’re in the position to spend out, it’ll help you make it go further.

First, some caveats before we continue:

1. This is based on my experience and mine alone. Everyone is different, everyone has a niche. Any information given is from my own personal experience. I’ll quote actual real statistical figures publicly available.

2. I’m not here to bitch. Seriously, I’m not. I’ve thought long and hard about mentioning names and companies involved and I’ve decided to do so when required. So if you’re reading this and your name is mentioned then sorry about that, please read point number 1.

3. I’m a firm believer in paying it forward. This whole photographer section of my blog is because when I started out people fell over backwards to help and assist me. So here I am, telling you about my mistakes so you can get to where you want to be quicker or at least with less financial grief. That’s all. Nothing more, nothing less.

4. This is something that nobody appears to talk about or more importantly….and I quite seriously believe…..are scared to. You don’t need to be and I want comments and interactions on this post. I want to believe that what I’ve experienced isn’t the norm. Prove me wrong.mo

5. These posts are subject to change. Young and old we’re always learning. I’m happy to be wrong and will adjust this post to suit.

If a service is worth having you wouldn’t normally expect people to jump out from bushes without warning selling you ‘widget x’.

That’s the first point. If something was really that good at generating business it would be talked about all over the place, Facebook groups, forums, Twitter and it would be talked about yesterday and already be over sold.

Not via a cold call at 9.45 whilst you’re signing for a parcel at the front door and your dog’s howling the place down to let me know someone is there.

And rest assured. In five years I’ve never had a call that was worth my while. Never.

Yet, they call, they grind you down and you think ‘I’ll give it a go’ and boom you’re in ‘Guides for Brides’ for a year. I believe in going hard or going home (sorry Will) in respect to advertising. I know how I look at magazines, (small ads will never catch my eye) so I paid £234 for a half page ad in Guides for Brides. Below is the ad I used:

As you can see, nice couple, not too busy or distracting. Details are clearly there and I had two enquiries from it (which would be ace if it wasn’t from other photographers wanting to assist me).

I get so, so many emails from togs starting out wanting to assist. This isn’t me beingshowy either. EVERYONE get’s them if they’re visible enough.

So that was guide for brides, nicest ad in their book, not a single result. POOF! money gone.

Next up was the Stylish Events Magazine which is handed out for 6 months at all their wedding fairs. For this I took out a full page A4 ad for £500. I no longer have the ad but as Stylish Events do a hefty amount of wedding fairs the magazine ad, whilst relatively costly had a targeted audience, was handed out to every show entrant and yet nothing came in as a result.

By this point many of you might quite rightly ask how I knew this. One thing I always do is qualify my sources of enquiry when I can. On my contact form there is the option to say where couples found me and also if it’s a direct call or email I’ll ask them at that point. So I almost 100% know for sure.

I also tried the ‘business cards in the bags’ at £50 per show and alas, nothing there either.

Lastly there was the biggie that is ‘Your Sussex Wedding’ – This has a range of my local competition advertising. So you’d think there must be something in it if they’re advertising month on month. One supplier stated they never got anything from it and that ‘magazine advertising is junk’… but that it’s ‘Good to be visible’ something which I’ll cover later at the end of this segment. Suffice to say the other advertiser said they received nothing from it either but the mailouts did net them something.

I was canvassed by Your Sussex Wedding and after repeatedly turning them down, I took on an ad. Essentially I shot this couples wedding (Elissa and Lukes Wedding) and they entered it as a feature. So I thought what the hell and placed an ad to run next to the four page spread of my photos.

Now, here is where it gets sticky. I got a booking. Ace.

From here I decided to up the ante and instead of the quarter page ad I thought I’d hit it with a half pager, same as the one I used in Guides for Brides.

Nothing. Now this ad was £702 for 6 months. Which says, features work, ads don’t IMHO which reflects my experience with blog advertising in Part 5.

From this I thought perhaps it’s not the media, maybe it’s me and Michael at YSW suggested my site was potentially putting people off and ‘was I using the mailers’? (They go to all the local wedding fairs an collect data from the couples there, I get sent the email address and mail chimp them via email). So no, I wasn’t mailing out to couples and tbh, my site was good enough to generate 54 weddings the previous year, prices hadn’t changed…anyhoo….

So I went and did some proper research, I contacted Tina Reading from Ultimate Wedding Mag and she helped to proof a new ad. She suggested a call to action, helped choose the photo and layout which resulted in this:

I also did the mailers, they used one of my photos on the cover (below), ran the ad for a further four months and spent several thousand on a new website (as it is currently today) guess what? Not a bean.

A front cover and a proofed ad from someone with over 20 years in the magazine industry got me a big fat zero

Then in an act of desperation (or moreover I’d just given up) I went for the shock factor that is the T-rex wedding meme of 2013 which has single handedly netted me a huge positive reaction anywhere it’s shown.

When all else fails. Give up and go with the T-Rex

Yet, nothing…then suddenly…I get a legacy enquiry and booking from the older ad.

In conclusion:

For me at least, print advertising sucks. I’m a very busy photographer, it’s not my work, it’s not my website. Out of £2238 paid I netted 2 bookings which means I paid £1119 per booking. This is an unacceptable cost to profit ratio. I may as well just halve my prices and sell myself on price. That’s the logic of it.

1. If a stranger is being paid to sell advertising space they do not have your best interests at heart.

2. Should small businesses and services even be advertising? Are you a person or a brand? A photographer isn’t Coca Cola. The continued exposure doesn’t have a cumulative effect other than your bank balance goes down in a consistent fashion. Branding is something more prolonged than the few months it takes to source a wedding photographer.

3. Magazines are something that get stacked up, kept and handed down. Who’s to say what enquiries I might receive a year or two down the line. But the above is where I am right now. As I said at the start I’ll edit this if it changes.

4. Don’t believe the hype. Don’t assume anything. Just because someone advertises somewhere doesn’t mean to say it works. It often means they have a budget to dispose of. Or they have cash to burn. Or they’re sadists.

5. Use due diligence. If someone is selling you space, PARTICULARLY via phone, be it a magazine or advertorial and they are that serious they will send you an example spread, either via PDF of post. This is GOLD and a great way to find out how good their claims are. Just pick up the blower and ask the advertisers. I’ve had people do this to me and I’m more than happy to help.

Bravo Chris – This is a very delicate subject but it is nice to read your personal view and be able to share your experiences.
For freelance professionals, sometimes desparate means for desparate measure – especially at this time of year when business quietens down. There is something within us that starts to panic so we start chucking money at advertising in the hope this brings us more business for the next year.
I too have spent, wasted money on adverts with no results! Out of 6 ads I put in various different local and national publications I only ever gained 1 booking (and that was from my worse ever advert I created)
I’m with you – advertising DOESN’T work (from my experience) However, it is important to have some kind of presence….. saying that, I was at my busiest at the beginning of my career when I had no advertising, no social media and just a website (and not a very great one at that)

What a fabulous and informative read ! I have only ever placed one advert ..not in a “wedding magazine” but in a lifestyle magazine aimed at the type of brides I would love to have attracted more of….zilch back..not a bean. So I felt I got my fingers scorched a little as it was money I could scarce afford at the time.. I WAS thinking maybe I should have invested my money in a more wedding related environment and maybe it was my marketing strategy at fault but I think you are right. I too hear off other wedding professionals that feel it doesn’t necessarily work for them either.

A couple of months back I got a call from a wedding brochure going out into all the local civil ceremony venues in my county…. they would LOVE to use my images they said….even sent me screen shots of the images the were desperate to feature ….and then the catch….they would only use my images throughout IF I placed an advert…..I nearly swayed …huge coverage and exposure they say….. anyway I didn’t sway …needless to say a month later I get a call asking if they can use my images with full credit anyway !

It goes to press soon so it will be interesting to see if anything positive comes back from it.

So come on Chris …when is the next post featuring the next advertising avenue…because I really enjoyed this one and thank you for taking the time to share your wisdom on it.

Fascinating insight into a murky world which pretty much mirrors my own experiences – especially with regards advertising on the blogs. The blogs definitely have strong brand recognition within the industry itself, and that seems to perpetuate itself with all the forum chatter etc. Whether they are as well known within my own target market however isn’t so clear.

We’ve met at Hitched.co.uk and whilst I haven’t been around as long as you I have to admit my experience of advertising would have been much cheaper had someone told me some of this info when I was trying to carve a little corner for myself.

I also agree that there isn’t much reality talk amongst photographers.

Hi Chris. I often see you popping up in the same online circles as me. This an interesting read – I agrees on the printed materials – I guess different services benefit from different marketing tactics though.
From a low spend perspective, contributing to forums like Hitched, and blog comments and Facebook posts are well worth the effort.
For higher spend activities, well targeted wedding fairs are good for us (we are a wedding camper company). I have never forked out for printed advertising although have been tempted… Think that I will continue to steer clear for now. Thanks for the post!!! Nat

A good read, Chris. My experience mirrors yours. Zilch from paper advertising. In my view, marketing to “everyone” is pointless. Potential clients *should* (in theory) be “looking” for wedding photography, so all you are doing is saying “I’m here” along with all the others on the page and I think you’re right, people on a budget probably think you’re expensive because you can afford to advertise or desperate because otherwise you wouldn’t need to advertise! It’s not as though we’re trying to tempt “to be weds” to use a wedding photographer – is it? At the very least, if someone sees an ad, the first thing they are going to do (if they’re “interested” is look at the website/blog – which means going online, which means they’ll also be able to “search” and bring-up fifty togs in their area. So, with this in mind paper ads are an expensive way to get someone to look at one’s online presence.

Great read, I too like every other photographer have been bombarded with so many calls and pressure sales for advertising and I have nearly caved quite a few times. This blog has just reassured me that I probably haven’t been missing out not advertising.

I find the website, social media and blog do the trick and just reminding people customers you are there by just keeping a steady online presence

This is a great topic to address – kudos. I was a marketing Manager for about 16 years before becoming a full time photographer. I’ve done virtually no magazine advertising for wedding photography as I find networking so cost effective. I do produce promotional leaflets for my alliances though and there are a few really important things that every advert or marketing piece needs (according to the top direct marketing people in the world (Google ‘Dan Kennedy’and ‘Drayton Bird’ for example.) Here goes (and I hope you don’t mind the constructive feedback on your advert – I just hope it helps):

– Testimonials (including name a town), because clients gushing about us is far more powerful than what we say about ourselves.
– A guarantee. There are millions of photographers so it’s hard for couples to know who to trust. A photographer may be very talented, but a complete swine, for example (present company certainly accepted!!) The guarantee takes away the risk and helps us stand out from the less confident masses. This alone has booked me many clients and I use it in all my marketing.
– An offer with a deadline. If there’s no reason for a couple to call you right away they’ll put the mag to one side and forget all about you – life gets in the way.
– Try offering a really useful piece of free information so they get in touch. I created a book where I interviewed some of the top wedding experts in my area (one venue, one hairdresser, one DJ etc.) and I offer it to any couple who contacts me. They find it useful and it positions me as a helpful expert in the industry – plus all the other vendors are giving it to their clients so it’s awesome marketing too!
– Try and use emotive words and let your personality shine through in the advert. Your blog does that excellently, so you should do the same with your advertising and other marketing efforts.
– Don’t expect your photography to sell itself, carefully chosen words are far more powerful. There are lots of brilliant photographers (and you’re certainly one of them) so we must be able to differentiate ourselves with our personality, guarantee, service (I have a projector where I can show engagement and growing up images at the wedding, for example), products etc.

Marketing and selling should really be about helping people (just as you do on Hitched – thanks for that tip by the way!). Once people like and trust you then they are more likely to hire you and invest more than they expected. I could ramble on, but I hope that was helpful.